Machines for combing textile fibers



MACHINE FOR COMBING TEXTILE FIBERS Filed Oct. 12, 1929 v 5 Sheets-Sheet l liivezii'ai Bloc 11 1 atai 2263 April 1933- F. c. BLANCHARD MACHINE FOR COMBING TEXTILE FIBERS Filed Oct. 12, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Izzve 27501 f; 6. fildmb Ap 1933. F, c. BLANCHARD MACHINE FOR COMBING TEXTILE FIBERS Filed Oct. 12, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 J 06221601 fmZnw Patented Apr. 25, 1933 1,905,336

UNITED STATES PATENTOFFIcE FREDERICK C. BLANGHARROF BOSTON,'MAS SACHUSETTS MACHINES FOR CQMBING TEXTILE FIBERS 7 Application filed October 12, 1929. Serial No. 399,198.

This invention relates to machines for As this change can be readily made in ex'- combing textile fibers preparatory to subseisting machines of the well known and popquent operations leading to the spinning of ular N asmith type, it is not necessary to resuch fibers into yarn. I construct the whole machine and consequent.-

: It had long been recognized that proper ly at very little expense the driving head of 55":

combing contributes in a marked degree to the comber maybe changed to permit an ine the excellence of yarn and fabric made from crease of productionof upwards of sixty per such yarn, but heretofore the expense of cent without the sacrifice of efficiency or qualthis operation has largely prevented its use lty.

except for the more expensive grades of yarn. In the accompanying drawings I haveil- 6.0

Th presentrinvention ha for it bject lustrated more or less conventionally such the cheapening of this operation without loss parts of N mi 1 1 as are required to. of efliciency so that the beneficial results of enable those skilled in the art to practice the a combing may be extended to less expensive P t inven ion, in which drawings classes of goods, this being efiected by-ai sim- Fig- 1 is a plan view showing'the driving 65:

ple modification of existing combing mamechanism in the head of such a comber chines which results in a very large increase equ pped with my improvement of output without sacrificing the quality of Flg. 2 is an end elevation, partly in section,

th o k d illustrating the double half-lap combing cyl- The limit of speed of operating-combing inder in association with appropriate parts machines is largely due to the fact that atof the well known feeding nipper and detempts to speed up such machines, as'organtach l g r011 elements.- ized, results in inferior work, since the rushi Fig. 3 is a cross sectional elevation on the 7., ing of the comb teeth through the fibers tears plane Indicated by dotted line 33 of Fig. 1.

the fibers as well as increases the amount of Fig. 4: is an end elevation in cross section 75 waste. In consequence of which the best on the plane indicat by. dotted sectional practice today does not operate these maline 4 4 of Fig. 1. chines at over 90 to 100'revolutions per min- Fig. 5 is a cross sectional elevation on the ute and even this is regarded as rather fast plane 55 of Fig. 1.

for the best results. The illustrated machine is offthe type The present invention overcomes this diifiknown as the Nasmith comber, such as shown culty by speeding up the actuatingmechanism and described in United States patent to that operates the fiber feeding means, the Nasmith No. 724,119 dated March 31, 1908,

while at the same time introducing into the minor modifications. driving head of the machine, where hereto- In describing the machine, as improved by fore the cylinder shaft that carries the combs this lnventlon, only such parts are referred.

. nipper mechanism and the detaching rolls at Without the improvements constituting the 4 a much more rapid speed than heretofore, present invention and with some additional or half-laps was coupled directly to the conto as are helpful to an understanding of the A trol or main shaft of the machine, a speedpresent improvement. The chief elements reducing gearing that revolves'the half-lap that deal directly with the lap or sliver are cylinder even slower than heretofore while shown in their well known relations in Fig. at the same time substituting for the usual 2 in which will be found two revoluble rollers balancing segment on each cylinder an addi- 1 upon which the roll of sliver is supported tional half-lap arranged diametrically opfor unwinding andidelivery to the combing positethe original half-lap so that the sliver mechanism. From theserollers the sliver is delivering the combing, the detaching and passed over the bottom nipper plate 2, which piecing-up of the half-lap or sliver is com is secured to an oscillatory frame 4 ful- .pleted on each half'revolution of the cylincrumed at 4 which advances and retracts der shaft. the nipper device, including the top or front 189 nipper 9, which is pivotally mounted on the supporting frame so as to advance and retract with it but which, by means not shown, is raised from and lowered to operative pinching engagement with the lower nipper by actuation of its pivotal supporting arms 9 by which it is connected with the nipper frame. The feed roll 3 actuated as described in said Nasmith patent aids in advancing tively driven in a manner presently to be described and, cooperating with the respective rolls are the weighted or pressure rolls D, D ,the former of which 'is carried in a swinging frame D to travel in a short are forward and back around the co-acting detaching roll D, which swinging movement is effected as described in the Nasmith patent by means of a rock shaft 11, an arm 12, a connecting link 13 and a rock shaft 14 actuated through aconnecting lever 14.

The oscillation of the nipper frame with its supported nipper mechanism is effected through the medium of the usual nipper rock shaft 5 to which is secured the arm 6 connected to the nipper frame by an extensible connecting rod 6?.

It will of course be understood that the operations performed by such a combing machine von the lap or sliver comprise the feedingin or delivery of the lap from the unwinding lap roll between the nipper plate and a co-acting feed roller 3, the pinching orgripping of the advanced or projected forward portion of the lap beyond the nipper plate by the pressure of the top nipper 9 against the nipper plate 2, the combing movement of the needles of the half-lap 21 secured to the revolving comb cylinder 20, the advancing of the entire tuft by the forward movement of the nipper mechanism during part of the combing action, the release oropening of the top nipper and the practically simultaneous penetration of the projecting tuft by the teeth of the top comb,

preceded by the reverse rotation of the de-' taching rolls to feed back the rear end of the previously combed tuft and the piecing-up of the newly combed tuft which is overlapped upon the reversely fed portion of the previously combed tuft by the further advance of the nipper plate and feed roll so that the newly combed tuft is drawn away from the nipper as the nipper and feed rolls recede to initial position. A

At the speed with which these operations are performed when utilizing the present improvement, it is necessasry that the driving trains which control the'movement of the detaching rolls should at-all times positively control the movement and the pause of the detaching rollers. Accordingly this connection is made through an epicyclic train comprising outer and inner driving members having epicyclic connection with the detaching roll shaft in all respects similar to that shown in the United States Patent to Chace No. 1,133,006, except that, as will presently be explained, the outer driving member of the train is driven by a peripheral spur gear instead of driven through a tubular hub, and with the further exception that the inner driving niember ofsuch element is driven by means of a crank shaft that is actuated from an eccentric gear couple.

Referring now to Fig, 1 of the drawings and the various sectional elevations shown, it will be seen that at one end of the combing machinethere is provided an upright frame or standard 30 carrying the operating parts and shafts of the machine and an outside upright Or frame 31, between which is located the entire driving and controlling mechanism of the whole combing machine which may comprise any number of combing units arranged side by side along the length of the machine. o

In this driving head, between the two frames, is mounted the power or pulley shaft 32, which by means of a pinion 32 meshing with-a large 'gear33 drives the parallel control shaft 34 by which, for the most part, the various operations of the machine are controlled except that the clearing brushes for the-half-lap teethmay from the power shaft 32.

I will first-describe the driving connection be driven directly between the cylinderhshaft 60, which carriesthe cylinders 20 to which the double half-laps 21 are secured for revolution.

On the control shaft 34 is secured a pinion:

36 which operates a speed-reducing gearing 37, 38 so proportioned thatby meshing" connection with the pinion '39 secured on the aligned end of the cylinder shaft 60 the speed of the cylinder shaft is reduced rela-c tively justone-half of that which itp're- 'viously had when the control shaft 34 was coupleddirectly totheend of the cylinder shaft 60,, The pinion 39 can vbe bolted to one of the former connecting flanges 60' so that it is merely required to insert the carrying bracket 37, which supports the back; gears 37, 38, to establish this reduced speed ratio between the cylinder shaft and its former drive shaft This of course means'that the cylinder will turn only one-half a revolution for each complete revolution of the control shaft 3 i, instead of as heretofore turning equally with it.

As each revolution of the control shaft produces a complete cycle of operations of the feeding, the nipper and the detaching roll operations, the substitution of an additional half-lap 21 for the counterbalancing segment, heretofore secured opposite the old half-lap, a combing action is secured for each half revolution of the cylinder shaft, thereby permitting the comb to be speed of operation of the feeding, nipping,

detaching and piecing mechanism, the difference being compensated for by the use of two half-lap. combs on the cylinder.

I will briefly describe the tram of mechanism by which the forward and backward movements of the detaching rolls. for alternately detaching and piecing-up the sliver 1s effected.

An eccentric gear 35 secured to the control shaft 34 intermeshes with an underneath eccentric gear 40 to Whose shaft is secured a crank pin arm 41, which by means of al1nk 42 is operatively connected with a considerably longer crank arm 43 that is secured to the shaft 44, which forms the inner member of the epicyclic element 50. This epicycllc transmission element is precisely like that shown in the aforesaid Chace patent illustrated in Fig. 7 of the drawings of said patent, except that the outer driving element instead of being driven through an elongated tubular hub enclosing the inner drive shaft of the element is driven by means of an external or peripheral gear ring 46 secured to this external element 45, which gear meshes with the pinion 36 secured to the control shaft 34. The driven shaft 47 which is driven alternately in opposite directions, according to the relative movements of the outer driving member 45 and the inner driving shaft 44 is provided with a gear 47 E for transmitting motion alternately in opposite directions to the detaching rolls D, D as Will presently be described.

The eccentric gear couple 35, 4O acting through the short crank arm 41 and link 42 produce a slow movement in one direction and a rapid movement in the other direction of the crank arm 43, that is secured to the inner driving element or shaft 44 of the epicyclic train. Moreover, when the crank arm 41 is at the two dead center positions beyond which the reversal of rotation of the inner driving shaft 44 takes place, there is a momentary pause attended with only a very slight or slow movement of the shaft 44 on either side of the dead center positionand yet at all times the relative movement of the outer and the inner driving'members of the'epicyclic trainiare positively, controlled. Since the internal con-, structionof this epicyclic element is precisely that shown in the Chaos patent and is there? fore: old ,andwell known in the art, it hasbeen thought superfluous to describe an illustrate further the detailsof this well known device. The transmission of rotary motion in either direction to the positively driven detaching rolls D, D from the driven shaft 47 of the epicyclic train is effected by means of the pinion 47" secured to said shaft 47 which intermeshes with a pinion 48 that is compounded with a wide pinion 48", which in turn intermeshes with the pinion 49 on the end of the-detaching roll shaft D and with a pinion 49 on the end of the detaching roll shaft D Thus, it will be seen that the two positively driven detaching rolls D, D are simultaneously and equally driven from a common driving pinion 48 that is controlled from the driven shaft 47 of the epicyclic train and that the driving connection, when these rolls are r0 tated in either direction, is of a positive and reliable nature, thus insuring absolute precision of'operation in starting, stopping and reversing-these rolls for the detaching and the piecing-up operations.

. Itwill therefore be seen that by the simple introduction of a suitable back-gearing 37 carried in a bracket 37? and the securing ofa suitable driving pinion 39 on the free fendof the cylinder shaft 60, the speed of rotation of the cylinder shaft 60, which carries the half: lap, any desired ratio of cylinder shaft to control shaft speed may be obtained, provided the movement of half-laps on each cylinder head be increased in the inverse ratio. In the present drawings I have shown only two half-laps to each head and consequently the back-gearing is designed to reduce the speed one-half, which is easily possible and practicable because a single half-lap occupies a comparatively small arc of the entire circumference of the cylinder head. Increasing the dlameter of the cylinder head would make it possible of course to use more than two half-laps provided the cylinder shaft speed ratio be correspondingly reduced. Thus, by a very simple and inexpensive alteration in the driving head of the machine existing combmg machines can readily be changed to very largely increase their output Without sacrificlng excellence of work and thereby greatly reduce the cost of the combing operation and making it available for less expensive yarns than heretofore.

What I claim is:

1. A driving mechanism for a combing mach1ne embracing in combination a revoluble combing cylinder, plural half-laps peripherally secured thereto in symmetrical relation, a main control shaft, a speed reducing gearing forming a drive connection between the control shaft and the cylinder for driving the cylinder at reduced speed, coordinated lapfeeding means, nipper mechanism and detaching and piecing rolls driven by connections from said control shaft, the driving connection for said rolls embracing a reversible transmission uninterruptedly and positively maintaining a driving connection from the control. shaft to said rolls and causing rotation of the detaching rolls forward and backward with predetermined intervals of pause whereby the action of the detaching rollsis positively coordinated with each half lap in succession without lost motion.

In a driving head for a combing machine, the combination with a cylinder shaft extending the length of the machine and carrying a combing cylinder on which half laps are secured in diametrically opposed pairs adapted to revolve one after the other in proximity to the lap feeding and nipping means, a timing control shaft, separate from said cylinder shaft, mounted in the head of the machine and having connections for actuating in proper coordination a longitudinal rock shaft by which the nipper mechanism is controlled and actuated and also a second longitudinal rock shaft by which the upper detaching roll shaft is oscillated toward and away from the coaeting nipper mechanism, and continuously running reversible variable-speed transmission means for continuously interconnecting said time control shaft with the detaching rolls, and driving means connecting said time control shaft with the cylinder shaft and acting to rotate the cylinder shaft one-half revolution foreach complete rotation of the time control shaft.

In witness whereof, I have subscribed the above specification.

FREDERICK C. BLANCHARD. 

